March 8, 2010
Agents, editors and publishers have wanted authors with platforms for quite a while now. The logic is simple – an author with a platform comes with an audience ready to purchase a book. These sales can either prime the pump and build word of mouth or, if a platform is large enough, make a book profitable in the first run.
What exactly is a platform?
The traditional definition of a platform is a position of authority through which a defined community can...
March 5, 2010
The term “The Big Six” is commonly used on blogs and within publishing circles to talk about the six largest publishers in the industry. Each of the big six publishers has a collection of imprints, or smaller publishing houses, that reside with relative autonomy within the larger publishing umbrella.
Here...
March 3, 2010
Pam Satran is neither a stranger to the Internet, nor the best seller lists. Her numerous baby name books have made the leap online into the successful NameBerry.com, and her blog How Not To Act Old was picked up by HarperCollins and landed at number 7 on the New York Times Best Seller list. However, as Satran was wrapping up her latest conventional novel, she felt another story...
March 1, 2010
Fiction Matters recently passed our first year mark, our first anniversary if you will. And that event was marked by work getting in the way of any posts at all last week. So, this week I’ve decided to sit Fiction Matters down and have a good talk with it, really hash some things out, put all the cards on the table.
Let’s start with the good news, the stats.
Fiction Matters is international!
...
February 16, 2010
As previously stated, pantsing is a term used to describe writing done with the least amount of pre-writing possible. At it’s logical conclusion, pantsing is a term used to describe the sheer act of writing, of capturing something ephemeral and turning it into something concrete, not by careful and logical study, but rather through emotional surrender to a greater idea – the muse, the moment...
February 15, 2010
This week, I’ll be taking a step back from talking about the greater publishing industry, and instead talking about pantsing. And by pantsing, I do not mean the scourge of middle school gym class, but rather the writing method.
The origin of the term pantsing doesn’t come from a world of writers,...
February 8, 2010
Author: J.M. Barrie
Description: Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up and Peter and Wendy are the stage play and novel (respectively) which tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and his adventures on the island of Neverland with Wendy Darling and her brothers, the fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, the Indian princess Tiger Lily, and the pirate Captain Hook. The story was written by Scottish playwright and...
February 4, 2010
The following is a letter from Macmillan CEO, John Sargent regarding the companies forays into the digital book world. Included are discussions on royalties and Amazon.
I am sorry I have been silent since Saturday. We have been in constant discussions with Amazon since then. Things have moved far enough that hopefully this is the last time I will be writing to you on this subject.
Over the last few years we have been deeply concerned about the pricing...
While it’s important that the modern writer have an expanded stable of skills – editing, marketing, networking – the core of what we do will always revolve around writing. Events like NaNoWriMo help to push us in that direction by surrounding writers with...
February 1, 2010
If you were away from your computer this weekend, you might have missed the first volleys of the eBook Wars. It’s been known for some time that publishers were not happy with Amazon’s pricing structure, going so far as to call the $9.99 eBook “predatory.” On Thursday, Macmillan CEO John Sargeant decided to do something about it.
...
